Purple Rain is an album by
Prince and
The Revolution, the
soundtrack to the 1984 film
Purple Rain.
Purple Rain is regularly ranked among the best albums in
rock music history.
Time magazine ranked it the 15th greatest album of all time in 1993, and it placed 18th on
VH1's
Greatest Rock and Roll Albums of All Time countdown.
Rolling Stone magazine ranked it the second-best album of the 1980s and 72nd on their list of the
500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Zounds magazine ranked it the 18th greatest album of all time. Furthermore, the album placed 4th in Plásticos y Decibelios' list of
The Greatest Albums of All Time. Finally, in 2007, the editors of
Vanity Fair labeled it the best soundtrack of all time and
Tempo magazine named it the greatest album of the 1980s.
The 1000th issue of
Entertainment Weekly dated July 4, 2008 listed
Purple Rain at number one on their list of the top 100 best albums of the past 25 years. The
RIAA lists it as having gone
platinum 13 times over.
Background
Purple Rain was released by
Warner Bros. Records on June 25, 1984, and was Prince's sixth album. Prince wrote all of the songs on the album, some with the input of fellow band members. Some of the tracks had portions recorded live when Prince performed on August 3, 1983, at the
First Avenue club in
Minneapolis. This show was a
benefit concert for the Minnesota Dance Theater. It was also the first appearance in Prince's band, The Revolution, by
Wendy Melvoin, his guitarist in the
Purple Rain film and for a few years afterwards.
Music
Purple Rain was the first Prince album recorded with and officially credited to his backing group The Revolution. The resulting album was musically denser than Prince's previous one-man albums, emphasizing full band performances, and multiple layers of guitars, keyboards, icy electronic
synthesizer effects,
drum machines, and other instruments. Musically,
Purple Rain remained grounded in the
electro-funk and
R&B elements of Prince's previous work while demonstrating a more pronounced rock feel in its grooves and emphasis on
guitar showmanship. As a soundtrack record, much of the music had a grandiose, synthesized, and even—by some evaluations—a vaguely
psychedelic sheen to the production and performances. The music on
Purple Rain is generally regarded as the most
pop-oriented of Prince's career, though a number of elements point towards the more experimental pop/psychedelic records Prince would record after
Purple Rain. As with many massive crossover albums,
Purple Rains consolidation of a myriad of styles, from pop rock to urban R&B to dance, is generally acknowledged to account in part for its enormous popularity.
In addition to the record's breakthrough sales, music critics noted the innovative and experimental aspects of the soundtrack's music, most famously on the spare, bass-less "When Doves Cry", which was frequently identified as pop at its most avant-garde. Other aspects of the music, especially its synthesis of electronic elements with organic instrumentation and full-band performances (some, as noted above, recorded live) along with its landmark consolidation of rock and R&B, were identified by critics as distinguishing, even experimental factors. Stephen Erlewine of Allmusic writes that Purple Rain
finds Prince "consolidating his funk and R&B roots while moving boldly into pop, rock, and heavy metal" and identifies the record's nine songs as "uncompromising...forays into pop" and "stylistic experiments", echoing general sentiment that Purple Rains music represented Prince at his most popular without forsaking his experimental bent.
"
Take Me with U" was originally written for the
Apollonia 6 album, but was later pulled for
Purple Rain. An unfortunate result of this addition was making crucial cuts to the
suite-like "Computer Blue", which circulates amongst collectors in a superior, though unreleased extended version (a portion of this second section of "Computer Blue" can be heard in the film
Purple Rain as Prince walks in on the men of
The Revolution rehearsing). The song "
Darling Nikki" is notable for its lyrical content, which eventually led to the use of
Parental Advisory stickers and imprints on album covers by ways of
Tipper Gore and the
Parents Music Resource Center. The ending of "Darling Nikki", due to the use of
backmasking, at the time was particularly noted as Satanic.
Reception
Prince won two
Grammy Awards in 1985 for
Purple Rain, for
Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group and
Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or TV Special, and the album was nominated for
Album of the Year. Prince won a third Grammy that year for
Best R&B Song (songwriter) for
Chaka Khan's cover of "
I Feel for You".
Purple Rain also won an
Oscar for
Best Original Song Score in 1985.
Purple Rain sold 13 million units in the United States, earning a Diamond Award from the
Recording Industry Association of America. According to
Billboard magazine, the album spent 24 consecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard album charts (
August 4,
1984 to
January 18,
1985) becoming one of the top
soundtracks ever.
Purple Rain traded the #1
album chart position with
Bruce Springsteen's
Born in the U.S.A. twice, during 1984 and 1985. Two songs from
Purple Rain, "
When Doves Cry" and "
Let's Go Crazy", would top the U.S. singles charts and were hits around the world, while the
title track would go to number two on the
Billboard Hot 100. The album has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.
The 25th anniversary of the release of Purple Rain was on
June 25,
2009. Aside from the mention of it as the cover story in a recent issue of
Spin Magazine, it was virtually overshadowed by the deaths of television legend
Farrah Fawcett and pop music icon,
Michael Jackson, which occurred the same day.
Track listing
All songs composed and arranged by
Prince; except "Computer Blue", words by Prince music by Prince,
John L. Nelson,
Wendy & Lisa, and
Dr. Fink.
Side oneSide twoTest pressing
The track listing to the November 7, 1983 test pressing:
Chart history
Album
Certification
Singles
- "God" (instrumental) — UK version only
- "Another Lonely Christmas"
- "Let's Go Crazy" and "Take Me with U" were released as a double A-side single in the UK in 1985.
Chart procession and succession
Personnel
- Prince: Guitars, bass guitar, keyboards, piano, vocals
- Suzie Katayama: Violin, viola
- Novi Novog: Violin, viola
See also
